Tuscany: But not as we know it

Talamone & Massa Marittima

North from Argentario, the pretty fortified fishing village of
Talamone sits at the southern tip of the Monti dell'Uccellina, a
coastal ridge of densely wooded hills that are home to porcupines,
wild boar and abandoned medieval monasteries. The Uccellina has one
of the best beaches in mainland Tuscany: a three-mile strip of
white sand that has been saved from bars and beach volleyball by
being declared a nature reserve. The further you walk from the
Marina di Alberese car park and visitor centre, the fewer people
you see, and the less clothes those happy few are wearing.

The regional capital, Grosseto, is not one of Tuscany's great
cities: extensively rebuilt after the war, it is ringed by
supermarkets, factories and army barracks. But the walled centre is
pleasant enough, especially on market-day Thursdays; and Grosseto
is a springboard for some breathtaking back- country tours up the
wide and scenic Ombrone valley.

Massa Marittima, a historic town set well back from the coast
north of Grosseto, is an exception to the general Maremma rule:
this was no rugged, rustic village, eking a living from a difficult
land, but a flourishing medieval comune, its wealth based
on the nearby silver and copper mines. Malaria and the exhaustion
of many of the best seams sent the town into decline after the 16th
century - which served to preserve its medieval centre in
aspic.

Massa has a handsome Pisan Romanesque duomo, a spectacular
14th-century altarpiece by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in its Museo Civico
Archeologico, and a general air of faded grandeur. So grim was the
reputation of this once-benighted part of Tuscany that
'maremma!' has become a mild expletive in modern Italian,
with pretty much the same force as 'damn!'. But that was then: now
everyone wants a piece of the Maremma, as the prices in
estate-agent windows testify. It's one of those places that really
gets under the skin - rather like the mosquitoes that gave it such
a bad press in the past.

Pictured: on the summer terrace at La Fontanina in the shade
of a cherry tree